Netanyahu Says Israel Hit Iran Hard; Khamenei says the damage should not be exaggerated

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israel’s airstrikes have hit Iran’s defenses and missile production “hard”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, but Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the damage from Saturday’s attack should not be exaggerated.

Now that war is raging in Gaza and Lebanon, the direct confrontation between Israel and Iran threatens to turn into a regional conflagration. But a day after the airstrikes there was no sign that they would trigger a new escalation.

However, heavy fighting in Lebanon between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has intensified in recent weeks, continued on Sunday with an Israeli airstrike killing eight people in a residential block in Sidon, doctors said.

“The air force has attacked all of Iran. We hit hard Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles aimed at us,” Netanyahu said in a speech, calling the attack “precise and powerful” and saying it met all its objectives.